


little things you do together

by celaenos



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Beaujester Week, F/F, One Shot, Post Episode 70
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-06-29 15:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19833133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celaenos/pseuds/celaenos
Summary: “You could teach me,” she says after a minute.“Huh?”“Teach me to fight, like you.”(beaujester week, day 1)





	little things you do together

Jester walks through the house, looking for Beau.

Caleb has been shut up in his room, studying, since Nott and Yezza left to go see Luc yesterday. Fjord has been wandering the city, trying to meet more people, to blend in, to see what the Bright Queen is up to. Who knows. Caduceus has been in the kitchen all day, experimenting. Jester was helping for a while but then she got bored and sad and went into Yasha’s room and stared up at the mural that she painted, weeks ago.

She presses her palm up to a sunflower, then she swipes at her eyes and goes off to find Beau. 

Jester finds her sitting in the yard/garden—they haven’t collectively decided what to call it, yet. She has only seen Beau meditate once before, but she’s pretty sure that’s what Beau is doing. She’s sitting up, legs crossed, palms pressed down onto her knees with her eyes closed.

Jester takes the opportunity to jump attack her. She flings her body at Beau’s hoping to tackle her and roll over, but the minute she slams into Beau, Beau grabs her back and flips them both and has Jester pinned and is about to punch the living shit out of her before Jester hollers and Beau realizes who she is.

“Dude,” she breathes out, lowering her fist.

“I got you,” Jester grins. “Pretty good, huh?”

Beau seems to smile despite herself and rolls her eyes, lifting off Jester so she can sit up. “Not bad,” she acquiesces.

“But I could be better,” Jester says. Beau shrugs, sort of nods, and lies down in the grass. Jester quickly flips around so that she is lying down beside her. “You could teach me,” she says after a minute.

“Huh?”

“Teach me to fight, like you.”

“Jes—”

“It’ll be fun!” she declares. “I like how I fight fine, but I think you are so strong and so cool and so tough and you could show me how to do it too!” she says this way too fast. She can tell from the way that Beau sort of stares and her and blinks, her brain trying to catch up. Mama always tells Jester to slow down. She takes a deep breath and presses her lips together and waits for Beau to talk before she says anything else.

“Um… sure, why not,” she finally says.

“GREAT!” Jester leaps up and crouches into a stance like she’s seen Beau do a hundred times before. From the ground, Beau laughs, grinning up at her.

“That’s not exactly how you do it.”

“Well, get up and show me!” Jester tugs at her and Beau laughs and makes her body completely limp, dead weight. Jester groans but she’s stronger than Beau so she quickly hauls her up and chucks her over her shoulder, Beau hollering and laughing.

“Put me down! Jes!”

Jester deposits her gently onto her feet, claps her hands behind her back, and waits. “So?” she asks. “Will you show me how to fight like you?”

“Sure,” Beau shoves a hand through her hair. “How come, though?” she asks. “You’ve got magic. Plus, obviously, you’re super tough,” she points between them.

“Yeah,” Jester grins. “But you’re super tough, too. Different tough. I want to learn how to be tough like you,” she smiles wide and is surprised when Beau doesn’t smile back at her, but looks confused and won’t meet Jester’s eye. She watches Beau suck in a quick breath then clenches her fists and walks over towards Jester.

“First, you gotta learn how to fall,” she says and Jester’s shoulders slump.

“Fall?” she asks, incredulously. “I know how to fall, you just… fall.”

“Nope,” Beau says, popping the ‘p’ sound and pulling a shit-eating grin. “Not quite.”

Maybe this won’t be the most fun thing, after all.

…

…

Jester crunches her shoulder into the ground, wheezing and trying not to cry.

Beau’s face appears directly in front of hers. “Better, but nope. Again.”

“It’s _falling,_ ” Jester snarls. “WHY IS THIS SO HARD?”

Beau’s laughter chimes in her ears as she eases Jester upright for the twentieth time. Apparently, Jester has been falling down incorrectly her entire life. There’s a proper way to hold your body, to protect your organs, to be able to flip back upright as soon as possible. All sorts of things that Jester has never thought about. Just, _whoops, now I’m on the ground and it hurts._ Beau thinks about all of it and can do it without thinking. She’s not willing to let Jester try anything else until she knows how to fall down.

“Come on Jes,” Beau says, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “You’re really close. You got this.”

Jester squares up her shoulders and runs.

She falls. Again, and again, and again.

…

…

By the time Caduceus calls them inside and says he’s finished dinner, Jester is supporting a body full of painful bruises, but she did it the way Beau wanted, five times. She casts _cure wounds_ on herself as Beau claps her on the back, grinning proudly.

“I tried a new spice,” Caduceus calls out. “I think everyone is going to love it. Or hate it. One or the other,” he smiles.

“Come on,” Beau says, “let’s go stuff our faces. You’ve earned it.”

…

…

Jester drags Beau outside again the next morning. Caleb is shut up in his room, Caduceus is in the kitchen, and Fjord is out again, avoiding the Xhorhaus and everything it represents after Yasha and the Bright Queen.

Jester doesn’t want to think about any of that. She doesn’t want to worry about whether or not Nott will come back. If Yasha is evil now, or always was, or what any of them are gonna do now.

She wants to know how to punch things.

“Okay,” Beau says, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, stretching out her arms and bouncing. Jester starts mimicking her, and Beau grins. “Now that you know how to fall and protect yourself and get back up fast, we can do the fun stuff.”

“Great!” Jester cheers and then Beau runs at her and tackles her into the ground.

…

…

They spend every day like that. Caduceus wakes up the earliest and makes tea. He leaves a mug in Caleb’s room and usually takes books out of his bed and sets them on the nightstand. He makes sure that Fjord eats something before heading out to wander, and a few times, he tags along. He goes on the hunt for new spices, new recipes, and Fjord wants to know more about the Wildmother.

Every day that Nott is gone, Jester gets a little more worried that she won’t come back, but, they agreed on a week. Nott said that she’d be back in a week and Jester trusts her.

(She trusted Yasha, too).

Jester shakes her arms the way Beau does and places her feet the way Beau told her too, ignoring the thoughts in her head.

“Hum, not quite.” Beau comes up behind her and starts gently readjusting her body into the correct position. Jester hadn’t been sure if Beau would get annoyed with her or not—being a teacher is hard—but she never does.

She doesn’t lie to her, either.

“Nah, that looked like shit,” she says, easily ducking out of Jester’s punch. “Here, try putting more of your weight on your back foot, then do the same thing.”

Jester does.

“NICE!” Beau hollers. She deflects the punch, because she’s amazing, but from the way she’s grinning at Jester, if it were anyone else she probably would have knocked them to the ground. “Next time, try shifting your torso like this,” she says, and reaches up and puts her hands on Jester’s waist, showing her the position she means.

That’s been happening a _lot_ all week, too. Jester’s breath hitches, like it has almost every time, and she waits and moves the way Beau tells her to.

“Okay,” Beau says, “come at me,” she’s grinning.

…

…

“Nice hit,” Fjord calls out, standing in the doorway and looking at them. Jester and Beau both look up at him. Beau takes the opportunity to swipe Jester’s legs and knock her to the ground while she’s distracted.

“Don’t get distracted,” she laughs and helps her back up. “Especially not by boys,” she adds, in a whisper.

“Cad says food’s on,” Fjord calls out and disappears inside.

“I wasn’t distracted because of _boys,_ ” Jester hisses.

“Whatever you say,” Beau teases, walking backwards and smirking.

…

…

“Gotcha,” Beau smirks, pinning Jester to the ground.

Jester shoves her off easily and flips herself back up. “Again,” she demands.

Beau opens her arms and laughs. “I got all day.”

…

…

Jester goes into Yasha’s room every night and looks at the mural. She doesn’t know what she’s looking for, exactly, but she can’t seem to stop doing it.

She cast _cure wounds_ already, but she’s still a little sore as she limps back into their room. Beau’s on her bed, hair wet from the shower, rubbing cream onto her arms. “Everything good?” she asks.

“Her room’s the same,” Jester says. Beau stills. “I mean _obviously,_ ” she adds. “No one is going in there but me and she didn’t have much stuff and she’s not here so, obviously, but—” Jester presses her palms together and cuts herself off with a shrug. “I don’t know why I keep going in there…”

“Cause she was our friend and you miss her,” Beau says, like it’s simple. Maybe it is. Jester shrugs and crawls into her bed, facing the wall away from Beau. “It’s okay to miss her and to not know how you feel about it,” Beau says, softly. “I do too.”

Jester squeezes her eyes shut tight.

…

…

“YEAH JES!” Beau hollers, jumping up and down and cheering. Jester flattens Fjord, who’s grunting from the ground. Beau comes running up at them, tackles Jester into a hug and lifts her up, spinning her around. “I’m so proud of you,” she says, almost soft.

“Dyin’ down here,” Fjord mumbles.

Beau releases Jester, still beaming until she turns to Fjord and her grin slips to something different. Still fond, but… there’s a different charge to it entirely. “Dyin’ cause you’re weak!” Beau says, helping him up. Jester tunes them out as they bicker, Beau’s _I’m so proud of you,_ ringing out in her ears.

 _I love you_ , she said on the boat. Jester said it back, without hesitation. She loves Beau, that’s easy. She loves Nott, and Caduceus, and Caleb, and—Yasha.

She loves Fjord. She thinks. Not… how she thought she was going to, but, she’s pretty sure.

And she loves Beau. Beau’s smart and strong and beautiful and she protects Jester and thinks that her ideas are great and she’s kind to her in a way that feels amazing. It’s not really even a thing Jester thinks about all that much, except… for now. Nott has Yezza and Luc. And Yasha had Zuala and then—

There’s just been a lot to think about, lately. 

Beau and Fjord finish their bickering and both turn back around and grin at her with matching smiles and Jester sort of gulps in air and chokes on it, a little. Fjord says something about not being able to take another beating right now and being hungry and heads inside. Beau goes into a crouch and says, “Get ready,” and does a backwards flip, preening and posing when she lands and Jester claps.

It’s sort of how she thought she’d feel around Fjord, once.

With that thought, Jester’s eyes go wide and she falls over, not the way Beau showed her, just painful and quick and embarrassing. Beau runs over with a slightly worried look on her face and grabs her. “You okay?”

“Um,” Jester stares up at Beau’s face. “Yeah,” she manages to say. “I’m good.” She wants to say, _I think maybe I might love you._ Or, _I think maybe we should makeout._ Or any variation of things that would get her message across. Instead, she grins devilishly and says, “let’s go again,” and shoves Beau up and tackles her to the ground, both of them laughing and not worrying about what is going to come next.


End file.
